In handing over the starting point guard role to Jose Calderon and bringing in Jermaine O'Neal to bolster the Raptors' interior defense, general manager Bryan Colangelo has made a statement that he expects Chris Bosh to be putting up 20-and-10s well into May. O'Neal has critics to silence and an expiring contract in 2010, so he should be motivated to return to his six-time All-Star status.
The best-case scenario for the Raptors is a franchise-record win total (50+) and a second-round playoff appearance where they would have a puncher's chance against the Pistons, Sixers or Magic.
-RaptorBlog
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Should be a good season. The obvious x-factor this season is going to be O'Neal. If he can regain his form.... look out. I'll also be interested to see the progression of Bargnani this year. Hopefully, he starts to show consistency and shows why he was taken 1st overall.
That said, I think the Raptors get to the second round this year. They should consider themselves lucky they play in the east!
I'm excited about O'Neal as well, and think he'll be a 16-9 guy pretty consistently. I'm not sure about all-star status anymore. I'm actually concerned about Calderon more, simply because of the pressure of being that consistent #1 guy. There really is no backup, and if the guy goes down, it will kill the team. I really like the makeup of the team though, but the reality is, there are so many what-if's on here, that I think they'll fall just short of the 50 win mark. I'm going with 48.
On a side note, I really wish they dumped Moon in the offseason for some real scoring help. Doug Smith and other writers have really put down the guy this offseason for his laissez-faire attitude toward getting better and so far this preseason, it's showed. He overachieved last year, and looks like he'll be sitting beside Graham on the bench.
It will be a good season from the Raptors. I hope for a 2nd round birth and they have a chance against anyone in the east aside from the Celtics. Truthfully, assuming O'Neal is back to decent form, this team is still about a piece away from being a championship contender. A good swing man who can beat defenders off the dribble and hit a mid-range shot is a desperate need for this team that hopefully can be filled via the upcoming draft or free agency 09.
On another note....did anyone catch Steve Nash's comments on becoming a Raptor next year? Interesting comments, and Colangelo would have to do some fancy cap work, but man oh man Nash in Raptor red would look good!
On a side note, I really wish they dumped Moon in the offseason for some real scoring help. Doug Smith and other writers have really put down the guy this offseason for his laissez-faire attitude toward getting better and so far this preseason, it's showed. He overachieved last year, and looks like he'll be sitting beside Graham on the bench.
Dump the guy? He was a street free agent signed to a minimum contract.
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There's always two sides to an argument, and it's always a tie.
Should be a good season. The obvious x-factor this season is going to be O'Neal. If he can regain his form.... look out. I'll also be interested to see the progression of Bargnani this year. Hopefully, he starts to show consistency and shows why he was taken 1st overall.
That said, I think the Raptors get to the second round this year. They should consider themselves lucky they play in the east!
I expect O'Neal to be in the 14 pts 8 reb range. The Raptors will do nothing different. They'll lose games they're supposed to win, they'll show flashes of brilliance at times and beat teams like the Cavaliers and Celtics in the Regular season.
The East is nicely balanced now, especially with the Sixers picking up Elton Brand and showing they are a force to be reckoned with near the end of last season. I don't expect the Raptors to finish ahead of the Celtics, Cavaliers, Pistons, Magic, or Sixers. They will likely finish no higher than the 5 seed, and get knocked around in the first round by LeBron or the Magic again.
Dump the guy? He was a street free agent signed to a minimum contract.
Dump was the wrong word. He's a FA this year. Expiring contract, making minimum, probably in for a big payday, Raps probably won't be able to resign = good trade value. He's simply overrated because of his hops and highlight reel come-from-nowhere blocks. The simple fact that he's an expiring contract and a good marketing tool could've net a pretty solid scorer in a package deal I'd think.
Hmm, I thought I posted in this thread a few days ago but I guess not. Yeah, I'm really excited about the start of the season, but no moreso than most seasons. I think the biggest news is that Bosh is the healthiest he's been in years, and if O'Neal is able to shoulder some of the load, I look forward to seeing what Bosh can do.
Other things to look for: Sounds like Bargnani had a great offseason, I hope that it turns into regular season success... also curious to get a first look at Ukic. A few years away from being anything meaningful at the NBA level, but I still think he may have been a steal. Nervous about Calderon being the only true PG; it was nice to have them both there, although of course it couldn't have lasted. And hopefully we'll Kopono used better. I see the east being Boston and Orlando being the class of the east, and then a group of about five fairly equal teams including Detroit, Cleveland, Toronto and Philadelphia. No reason Toronto can't hang with a couple of those teams during the regular season and knock one of them off in the playoffs.
I saw an intra-squad scrimmage here in Ottawa at the Carleton University gym and saw the players up close and it looks like Bargnani gained about 15 pounds. Hopefully that means good things as to his commitment to getting stronger, and maybe it'll translate to his game.
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I've been following the Rap pretty closely the last couple of seasons. Defense or rather the complete lack of it is why they can't get past playoff round one. They take from a position of strength(point guard) and add to a position of weakness(interior defense).
But he is an injury prone individual and his attitude needs to spread to the rest of them. Roko looks like by the last 1/3 of the season he should be a decent backup. AB has indeed added muscle and looked better in the preseason albeit woefully inconsistent.
AB provides good minutes behind JO and Bosh and they are in good shape big man wise. Humphries can come in once and awhile and bang away.
Lot hinging on JO's health.
I'm encouraged they added JO. I'm encouraged AB has made the effort to bulk up and improve. I'm waiting till I see them in the regular season and see if they develop any chemistry, attidude and most of all improvement on defense before getting excited about their prospects this year!!!!!!!
Great way to start the season with a win over Philly. Not pretty in some ways (particularly rebounding), but offensively they were moving the ball really well and shooting lights-out. Great to see them use Kopono as a 3-point shooter (unlike last year), and Ukic looks very at home out there, at least on the offensive end. Not great on defense, but it's not going to kill the Raps to have him out there for 15 minutes a night.
Don't think you could have opened up the season much better then they did tonight. The team started extremely slow early on (particularly CB4) but once Roko Ukic, Joey Graham and Kapono came on they went on a tear. Roko looked like a vet out there and it's extremely obvious why he was projected to go in the first round in his draft year, the guy just has some amazing court vision. There were a number of times he would drive into the traffic in the post and then dish out a perfect pass to one of his wings to take an uncontested jumper. He also appears to have solid handles as he beat a sixer to a lose ball and then went around him by throwing it behind his own back without even breaking stride-then went in for the easy layup. Definitely one of those games where his stat line doesn't even come close to showing how well he played. He's definitely going to need to put on some weight though, he looks like a highschooler out there against some of the other guys.
**Roko behind the back dribble, layup**
Joey Graham was surprisingly effective as well, he displayed a ton of hustle on the boards and earned himself some nice second chance baskets by simply outworking everyone around him. He also took high percentage shots instead of the Joey chucks we sometimes see from him. He was only 2-7 shooting but he played HIS game and it was great to see.
**Found a youtube link of the play:
Bargs looked good too. Didn't shoot much and had a couple bad breaks on rim outs but he also was taking good shots and was also showing alot more hustle and energy on the defensive end. He looked like a new man out there.
Kapono was in fine shooting form, they're gonna need that from him if they're gonna push their way to the upper echelon in the east.
The Sixers never really looked in sync IMO, they had a chance to really put it on the Raps early on when the Raptor starters were completely out of sync and couldn't by a basket. They missed a lot of second chance layups that could have put them up by 10-15 points early. Raptors need to work on getting an open look or at least running something going towards the basket early on to get them in rhythm. I think their first 4-5 shot attempts were fade aways and that's just a bad % shot until you get yourself into a groove.
Looking forward to G-State, should be a good test.
The Raptors have a okay team, but they will still get bounced easily in the first round. Jermaine Oneal is good, but his body has taken a beating, and he is not the same player he was before. Until this team makes a better effort to improve rebounding the basketball they will no competition in the playoffs. Its 1 game but its the same problems of years past, rebounding is a big issue for this team. The game yesterday Elton Brand and Dalambert combined for 30 rebounds, while the Raptors as a team had 33. They are in a horrible conference so they should be able to get in the playoffs.
I'm not worried about the rebounding yet. Toronto's offensive boards were actually not to bad: winning 10 of 43 possible offensive rebounds is a respectable amount, and those are the rebounds that are generally won with hustle and tenacity. Recovering only 23 of 46 possible defensive rebounds, on the other hand, is pretty bad, but more reflective of miscues and miscommunication, not unexpected with new teammates. I'd be more worried if the Raptors were unable to get a rebound at either end of the court.
Something else I liked last night: the short bench. I think we had just nine players in the game? And other than Bosh, nobody had an extreme amount of minutes: some nights Bosh will get a bit more rest and Humphries will get some minutes, but it felt like the team had a lot of continuity as starters started to come off the floor.
I really liked the shortened bench as well. Colangelo does a lot of things right, and a lot of things wrong, and last year, designing the team to go 13 deep was useless. 9 or 10 is a good number and the rest should be practice fillers. Ukic looks like a TJ without the selfish play the way he takes it from the three to the basket. Really liking the kid.
I'm personally not too concerned about the boards yet. Bosh will keep doing his thing, while O'Neal will gradually pick up his end once he gets more confidence once again playing a more banging game. He's probably just a little cautious this early. I just hope Bargs plays better d, and Calderon holds up.
Toronto Raptors 8/9 Season Thread
